Hillary Clinton’s associates have confirmed to The New York Times that she has accepted President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to become secretary of state in his new administration.

Earlier in the week, Bill Clinton agreed to do whatever the Obama team wanted with regard to investigating his finances — he turned over information on the donors to his foundation — and Obama representatives said just this morning that Hillary’s nomination was on track.

Now, someone described as a “confidant” of the former first lady told the Times, “She’s ready,” and that Obama and Clinton met twice so that they could get “comfortable” with the idea of working together. "She knew this was the right thing to do but just needed to sit with it for a bit to make sure," the adviser said.

There had been speculation that Sen. Clinton would not want to give up her role in Congress, and that she was in line for even more powerful positions within the world's most exclusive debate club.

However, she may have seen a greater role for herself as secretary of state. Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the liberal Brookings Institution, told Britain's Telegraph newspaper, "She will be aware that the influence of secretary of state on foreign policy is comparable to the whole of the senate."

The Times writes that Hillary will be powerful, but “will have . . . to subordinate her own agenda and ambitions to Mr. Obama’s and sacrifice the independence that comes with a Senate seat and the 18 million votes she collected during their arduous primary battle.”

Policy analysts say her selection as secretary of state could mean the State Department's stance could be more hawkish. She has not committed to a firm timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, reports Reuters.